By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
BIRMINGHAM – On Thursday night, the Clay-Chalkville Cougars and Ramsay Rams were set to kick off at 7:00 pm, but the weather had other ideas. It may have been better for Ramsay had the weather persisted.
Kickoff was delayed until 7:30 and, from the opening whistle, the Clay-Chalkville Cougars dominated Ramsay, ending the night at 2-0 after a 62-7 victory over the Rams.
Ramsay started the game with the ball and, on the second play of the game, they threw an interception to Clay’s Keylon Curry Stewart. From there, quarterback Aaron Frye found Aaron Osley for a 53-yard strike to open things up and put the Cougars up 7-0.
Ramsay would answer on a 36-yard touchdown pass with 9:41 to go in the quarter and it looked like we would have ourselves a heavyweight match. Instead, the Cougars would drive down the field and put up another touchdown, this time on an 11-yard run by Osley at the 5:18 mark of the first, to make it 14-0.
Clay would hold Ramsay to a three-and-out on their next drive and proceed to move the ball 56 yards for the score, capped off by another Osley touchdown, this time from four yards out. At the 1:56 mark of the first, it would be Clay-Chalkville 21, Ramsay 7, and that is how the first period would end.
The Cougars took a little more time to score in the second as they held the ball for more than half of the quarter. Josh Woods would finish the drive with a four-yard touchdown to put his team up 28-7 with 5:33 to go before the break.
On Ramsay’s next drive, Deon Callins would pick off a pass, setting the Cougars up at the Ramsay 32. On the very next play, Frye would find Jabari Staples on a beautiful touchdown pass to push the lead to 35-7 with 5:12 to go before half.
After holding Ramsay to a punt, Stuart Floyd’s bunch would put together a 66-yard drive, capped off by another Woods touchdown, this time from eight yards out. The PAT was missed, making the score 41-7 at halftime.
Clay-Chalkville came out of the locker room shooting as Osley broke open a 21-yard run just before Frye hit Staples for a 52-yard touchdown to make it 48-7 just 45 seconds into the third.
Frye would find Marlon Compton on a five-yard touchdown at the 5:35 mark of the third after the defense once again smothered the Ramsay passing attack, causing them to fumble the ball. The score would sit at 55-7.
The final nail in the coffin would come on a four-play, 73-yard drive that saw Woods get all of the carries, the last of which was a 54-yard blast for the game’s final touchdown with 35 seconds to play in the third, making it 62-7.
The Cougars amassed 540 yards of total offense (239 passing and 301 rushing) on the night. The defense held Ramsay to 23 yards of rushing offense, but the Rams did find some success passing the ball with 267 yards through the air.
Frye finished the night 16 of 21 for 317 yards and 4 touchdowns. Woods had 16 carries for 129 yards and three touchdowns to go with 16 carries from Osley for 84 yards and two touchdowns, as well as his 53-yard catch for a touchdown. Receiving, Jabari Staples once again led the Cougars with four receptions for 110 yards and two touchdowns. Marlon Compton was close behind with seven receptions for 91 yards and a touchdown.
Coach Floyd said the following after the game. “He (Frye) is going to be the next one. I keep telling people. He’s a super kid, super smart and everyone is playing good around him. I thought we played decent last week, but the penalties overshadowed that. The goal this week was to limit that and play cleaner. Often times when you get up big, you let the foot off the gas and I didn’t want to do that. I wanted them to play the full 48 minutes. Ramsay has a good pedigree the last few years. Our kids were jacked up for this game and our kids were jacked up for it. It was a great performance wire to wire. We are now developing kids and that is what I am really proud of.”
Aaron Frye said the following, “We were really prepared coming out here. Our coaches prepared us well with watching film and helping us pick up on tendencies that they have. It really helped us. I trust my receivers with all of my heart and they make it easy on me.”
The Cougars will travel to region foe Pell City next week. “They were way better last year than they looked,” said Floyd. “Joey Bennet is there now and we sort of know what to expect. Pell City has been circled on the calendar a while. We want to win the region and it starts with that one.”
The Panthers are 1-0 after beating Pelham 35-7 in their first game. They take on Coosa Christian Friday night.